Rusinko was born in Berwick on
October 22, 1922. She graduated from Berwick high school in 1940. She obtained a
BA in English from Wheaton College in 1948 then went on to get her masters in
English from Pennsylvania State University in 1950. While she was a professor at
Bloomsburg University she was the chairperson for the first organized arts
series at the university in the 1960s. She coordinated London theater study
trips in 1983, 1987 and in 1988. She also received her PhD from Pennsylvania
State University. She began teaching at Bloomsburg University in 1959 till she
retired in 1991. She wrote over sixty book reviews and over thirty articles. She
wrote six books. They included novels on the playwrights Terrance Rattigan
(1983), Tom Stoppard (1986), Benn Levy (1994) and Joe Orton (1995). She wrote a
study called British Drama: 1950 to Present: A critical History that was
published in 1989. Her final book was completed just prior to her death on
September 24, 1997.